Sorry this is a bit late again. Not much new to say this week but a
good report to read...

===

RIDE REPORT
Wattenden Arms 14/12/08

We had 6 riders on this week's trip. The weather was cold and foggy as
we made our way to the start. Even in gloves, my fingers were freezing
by the time I got to the Library. Off road routes were out of bounds
after the recent bad weather so we stuck to roads. Beddington Lane is
very quiet on Sunday mornings, as there is no industrial estate
traffic and even Asda hadn't opened, so there was no traffic at that
junction either. We cut through Beddington Park to Demesne Rd
(pronounced 'domain'), on to Stafford Rd and across Purley Way at the
traffic lights to go to the Wyevale Garden Centre cafe for a morning
stop.

We left the cafe just before 11am and headed to Purley where we
followed the LCN route parallel to the A22. We originally intended to
go up Welcomes Rd to the Wattenden Arms, but it was before 11.30am so
we would have been too early. One rider suggested a slightly longer
route, so we followed that. We continued on the LCN (London Cycle
Network) route towards Whyteleafe. It was suggested that we stop for
a look at the Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard of the church
at the corner of Whyteleafe Hill and Church Rd. We spent 5 mins
looking at the neat gravestones on a neat patch of grass (the tidiest
part of the churchyard). The gravestones all seemed to be for pilots
who had died in plane crashes. The earliest one seemed to be someone
who crashed in 1922, the most recent seemed to be pilots who crashed
and died in the early 1960s (perhaps Kenley aerodrome closed as an
operational airfield at that time?).

We continued south on Church Rd, and then 5 of us went left and right
into the exclusive Portley Wood Rd (to look at the posh
houses.....many of them are called "Little Something Cottage" and
they're huge great mansions, even "Little Something Lodge" was a
substantial detached house!). The 6th rider turned right and went up
Salmons Lane, apparently because it was a shorter distance, so a
shorter walk to push the bike up the steep bit. The rest of us got to
the top of Portley Wood Rd and eventually ended up on brand new road
with an open gate to the end of the runway at Kenley Aerodrome. As it
was still only 11.59am, we did an anti-clockwise lap of the airfield
(although we couldn't see much of the views because of the fog, which
hadn't eased much), before leaving at Hayes Lane and going round the
corner to the lunch stop.

A few people were already in the pub, but we had still beaten most of
the rush. We found an available table for 4 and one for 2 next to it,
so we moved them together to create a table for 6 (for all of us!).
After a leisurely lunch, we left the pub at 1.40pm. Two riders
disappeared immediately to go round to see a friend for afternoon tea
and the remaining four of us decided NOT to just go straight down Old
Lodge Lane because we wanted to do some flat riding to warm up a bit
first, so we went south on Hayes Lane (around the airfield again), to
Hartley Down. By the time we got to the bottom of Hartley Down and to
the Old Lodge Lane traffic lights, everybody had cold fingers and
faces so picking Grovelands Rd soon gave us an opportunity to warm up
again as it's steeper than we expected. But while steep hills are
never usually welcome, this one enabled us to thaw out a bit! Having
struggled up Grovelands Rd we made our way back to Carshalton where
most riders peeled off.

24 miles, out for 5 hours. No pix.
Report by Jim (edited!)

===

FUN CHRISTMAS PRESENTS:

http://www.spokeshirts.co.uk/product.php?productid=16165&cat=0&page=1

===

NEXT WEEK

It's our Christmas ride. Nice steady, leisurely amble to The Mint at
Banstead via Oaks Park. You can't book and it's often busy so we'll be
aiming to arrive when they open. No rush to leave but do bring lights
and locks. 9:30am depart from the library car park (not directly
outside the library)

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk
http://www.southlondoncyclists.org.uk